Three questions for the president's plan on the border wall: Our view

At Tuesday night's State of the Union address, President Donald Trump is expected to make yet another pitch for his southern border wall, having failed to secure $5.7 billion in funding despite partially shutting down the government for five weeks.

"By having the shutdown, we’ve set the table for where we are now," Trump told reporters last week. "If I didn’t do the shutdown, people … wouldn’t understand the subject. Now they understand the subject."

It's hard to understand the subject, however, when so many key details are lacking. Polls show that many Americans remain skeptical about whether there actually is a major national crisis on the border (there's not, in our view), or whether the larger emergency is the president's inability to deliver on a core campaign promise to build "a great, great wall on our southern border" and have Mexico pay for it.

As congressional negotiators try to reach a compromise on border security before a temporary government funding measure runs out on Feb. 15, a number of questions linger about Trump's demand for a border wall:

►What exactly would the $5.7 billion buy? There are 655 miles of existing barriers along the 2,000-mile southern border: fences, walls and vehicle obstacles. Much of that is in urban areas where the flow of illegal immigration is most likely. Trump once promised 1,000 miles of new wall. The $5.7 billion would pay for 215-234 miles of barrier, a mix of replacement and new construction. Customs and Border Protection, however, hasn't revealed where it would go and why.

►How long would it take to build? Trump's claim of a crisis suggests an urgency, enough for him to weigh declaring a national emergency if Congress doesn't satisfy his demands. But construction could take a long time. Condemnation cases, where private property must be seized for existing wall construction projects, have been languishing in the courts for years. If this is a true emergency, Trump's answer of building a wall is a little like treating a patient's cancer diagnosis by letting out contracts for a new hospital.

►Would it accomplish what Trump promises? In a CBS News interview on Sunday, Trump repeated his claims that drugs, human trafficking and crime would be curtailed. But Customs and Border Protection offers no analysis of projected reductions in national crime and drug smuggling beyond anecdotes. In fact, preferred smuggling routes for illegal drugs — through ports of entry — argue against Trump's assertions. The largest seizure of fentanyl (a synthetic opioid responsible for killing more than 28,000 Americans in 2017) in U.S. history was announced at a border checkpoint Thursday in Nogales, Arizona.

Since the president was elected, the White House has had more than enough time to establish through evidence and testimony why and where the barrier is needed. Instead, Trump has frittered away the months with an endless and easily debunked stream of feverish tweets and rally bombast.

Physical barriers aren't inherently immoral, and they do have a place in strategic locations as part of a comprehensive, modern-day border security plan. But the president remains several place settings short of having set the table.

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